Tag Archives | Forex

This is a continuation of the Trading Words of Wisdom By Yoda, for Quote #7 click here.

6. “Do not assume anything Obi-Wan. Clear your mind must be if you are to discover the real villains behind this plot.” – Attack of the Clones

When Obi-Wan discovers the secret clone army being made for the Galactic Republic on the planet Kamino, he’s puzzled by who requested the order of the clones. He’s also searching for the assassin involved with the plot to kill Senator Amidala. The creation of the clones and the assassination attempts on Amidala don’t seem to be connected, but Yoda wisely warns Obi-Wan not to assume anything. Most of the time it’s easier to see connections and solve problems when you’re calm and not distracted by what you don’t understand. We should ponder and explore what we don’t know, but not let it control our thoughts. When our minds get caught up emotionally in our problems, it becomes hard to think and see clearly.

It can be hard to know what’s real or fake in this world. Con artists want you to be caught up with your problems or goals emotionally so that you don’t see clearly who the real villains are. They want you to think you’re running out of time or can’t afford to miss the opportunity. The best way to find out truth is to ask questions–lots of questions. Take the time to think and research. There might be something that you can’t see from the surface, and you don’t want to be caught off guard by a rise in the dark side. Clear your mind, do your homework, and trust the facts.

Share this:

We all know everything in California is known to cause cancer, right? How could you miss it when there are warning signs posted on your grocery bags, in your hotel room, a restaurant, and even as you enter the Disneyland Resort. If simply entering the state is known to ‘cause cancer and birth defects,’ then why do 38.8 million people live there?

And we all know trading forex is dangerous. The warning that a bunch of power hungry wall street suits are scrambling around just to steal your money. You might as well be gambling, right? Then why are millions of trading transactions taking place every day?

Trading Forex is about as dangerous as going to California for vacation. Sure, California has the potential to be harmful…if you go around licking signposts, eating wrappers, and sunbathing without sunscreen. Trading Forex might not be as relaxing as a nice trip to California, but it’s not a dangerous slot machine either. As long as you follow some common trading sense rules, you’ll avoid the substantial losses that instill hefty doses of fear in each of us.

Take time to learn how to trade safely, and you don’t need to fear the market. The Apiary Fund teaches and funds traders in the currency market, so you’re covered as you start the learning curve that comes with a new skill. Learn more at apiaryfund.com

Happy Trading!

Share this:

Usually when we think of delusions we imagine mental disorders: someone struggling with schizophrenia or hypochondria. We may even imagine somebody we know–somebody who is high-strung with anxiety and convinced the world is out to get them. There are some pretty bizarre delusions out there:

Ever feel like you’re life is a movie? For people suffering from the Truman Show Delusion, they’re literally convinced that their life is a reality show they can’t escape from. This article on Buzzfeed reports that a man actually sued HBO for putting him on a secret reality show.

As if living your life in a reality tv show wasn’t bad enough, imagine your life was a video game! Want to score points to win? Steal cars, avoid police, and receive your instructions through your gaming headphones. Even if you’re arrested, it’s just another level to the game.(Source)

Do you know someone who lives their life in denial–to the point that they don’t even think they exist? A rare condition known as ‘Walking Corpse Syndrome’ is a delusion where the individual is convinced that they’re already dead or don’t exist. Some even claim to be able to smell their own rotting flesh.

I think most of us suffer from multiple delusions (hopefully not that serious, though). A delusion is a belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational. I’d like to think that I’m connected with reality and don’t belong in an asylum (my family might tell you differently, especially when I’m even remotely lacking sleep), but as I’ve grown older I’ve been able to look back and recognize the delusions I used to live by. Most traders experience delusions as well.

Traders, both new and old, often experience delusions in the currency market. Some common ones we might face:

“If I just keep trading, I can make a little more money.” That’s a scary delusion. You can be following the charts all day making trades, but it’s not about how many it’s about how well. The quality of your trades is much more important than the quantity.

“I can make some quick, easy cash in Forex.” The economy is not a magic box where you put a little money in and get a lot of money out. Trading requires discipline and strategy–not luck.

“It’s going to come back soon…” This delusion can bring you down. Fast. When you hit your stop loss, it’s time to get out. Trying to hang on to a losing trade is like trying to hang onto a hangnail–it’s a lot less painful to just cut it off.

We’re all at least a little guilty of these delusions, but a diagnostic is the first step to a cure. Review some of your past trades, and identify any delusions that affected the outcome. Then, find a way to overcome them; you can share it with a friend or mentor, keep a reminder next to your computer, or even watch a cheesy motivational trading video. Whatever you need to do, don’t let yourself be the reason you don’t succeed.Happy Trading!

Share this:

The Apiary Fund model is based on the characteristics of an apiary which is beehive where not just one bee but a whole community of bees work together to manage the hive. Just like a beehive, the Apiary Fund (the beehive) grows their capital (the honey) with the help from their traders (the bees).

The Apiary Fund offers an online trader development program with the objective of helping people learn how to effectively manage investment money. The challenge for most people is that in order to master the art and skill of money management, you have to manage real money in real-life markets and most people either don’t have the knowledge or capital to endure the learning curve. The Apiary Fund solves this problem by providing their students with real money from the company and gives them the opportunity to share in the trading profits as the learn. In the same way a hive supports the bee, the Apiary Fund supports its traders by giving them the knowledge and capital they need to work through the learning process.

In the same way the Apiary Fund shares characteristics with the beehive, our associates share certain characteristics with the bee. Here are few of the characteristics our successful traders share:

Work Ethic
Bee’s are busy. Bee’s buzz around all day long sometimes travelling up to three miles to find a single drop of nectar to bring back to the hive. Successful traders must have a solid work ethic in order to learn how to make money in the market. The good news, if you’ve ever enjoyed the sweet taste of honey, you’ll know the work has great rewards in the end. And a good money manager would agree!

Adaptability
Honey bees are very adaptable. This is an important skill that every fund manager must have. The financial markets are always changing. There is no one “magic” strategy to profit from the market. A fund manager needs to be able to adjust his / her trading strategies, in order to survive in the market.

Responsiveness
In winter, there is much less work to be done and the bees slow down. Similar to the bees, the financial markets also have seasonal cycles. During holiday seasons, like Christmas or New Year, the trading volume is very low. It is not advisable to trade during these seasons, as a trader may be caught in the market and could not exit with profit.

Conservative
As known, food source of bees is nectar, which is not possible to be found during winter. For this reason, they combine the nectar collected in summer time, produce honey, and store it for winter. This shows why money management is vital in trading. The Apiary Fund teaches money management at the beginning of its program. One of the Apiary Fund’s policies is to stop trading at 2% daily loss. The purposes are to protect capital and keep traders psychology intact. The first important thing for fund managers to do is to protect their capital before they make profit.

Remember “keep your ‘honey’ to live longer through the hard time” the coming winter months.

Share this:

The currencies market is different from all others because it’s a truly global market. Its hours of operation begin at 6pm EST on Sunday and runs until 4pm EST on Friday. And while it might be possible to trade the entire 118 hours in between, we don’t recommend it—you need to sleep sometime! There are times when the markets are active and moving, and you can use these times to benefit your trading!

There are four major currency centers in the world: Sydney, Tokyo, London, and New York. Though these hotspots are all across the globe, you can probably guess that some of the most active markets will be found within their overlap. Here are the three market overlaps you should know about:

New York/London (8am to 12pm EST) – More than 70% of all trades occur within this time period, making it by far the heaviest market overlap in the markets.

Sydney/Tokyo (2am to 4am EST) – The ideal currency pair to aim for in this period is the EUR/JPY, as these are the two main currencies involved.

London/Tokyo (3am to 4am EST) – This overlap sees the least amount of action of the three because most American traders won’t be awake at this time, and the one-hour overlap gives little opportunity to watch large pip changes occur.

As you can see, all hours are not created equal in the currencies market. If you have the opportunity, take advantage of these market overlaps in your trading and see what happens. Good luck!

Share this:

One of the most frustrating things for new traders is overcoming the spread. The spread is the difference between the bid price and the ask price at a given time. You should always consider the spread before you enter a position, as the move you’re anticipating may not be significant enough for you to turn a profit.

This difference in price can dishearten some traders. When they’ve gone into a position on a currency with a wide spread, they’re starting off in the hole, and the price has to climb that much further before they make a profit. A tighter spread, however, means you can turn a profit that much faster, as the moves don’t have to be as big.

Spreads are directly tied to volume. When there’s less volume in the markets, spreads will be larger; when there is more volume, spreads will be tighter. Volume trends aren’t a secret by any means, and you can use this knowledge to your advantage. The markets see the most volume between 8am and 12pm EST. Around 5pm EST, the markets see the lowest volume of the day.

It’s also worth noting that certain brokers offer a fixed spread while others offer a variable spread. Variable spreads bring the potential both for tighter spreads during periods of high volume in the markets, as well as wider spreads when the market is seeing low volume. Though fixed spreads are generally wider than variable, they bring predictability during periods of market volatility.

We know—it’s just another thing you need to think about before you get into a trade. But as you take these things into consideration, you’ll start to just see these things without thinking about them! But for now just remember:

Less Volume = Wider Spread
More Volume = Tighter Spread

As a side note, we at the Apiary Fund have done everything we can to make our narrow spread work for our traders. If you’re not a part of the fund currently, check out our Trader Orientation Webinar to find out more about the unique advantages provided by the Apiary Fund.

Share this:

If you haven’t noticed, the internet is quickly becoming a channel for the masses to impart their wisdom. But the design-by-committee approach is stigmatized by the idea that many unique perspectives can only be a hindrance, hence the adage “A camel is a horse designed by committee.” But if you doubt the abilities of the ‘crowd’ to make good decisions and produce quality products, just take a look at Wikipedia.

In just a few years since its founding in 2001, the free online encyclopedia is now the most popular reference work in existence. Its 21+ million articles are written, edited, and corrected by volunteers. Despite the problems that are sure to arise in such an openly collaborative project (they claim about 100,000 regular contributors), a 2005 study conducted by the journal Nature has shown Wikipedia’s reliability as a reference work could go head to head with Britannica.

Another example is the website Kickstarter. Launched in 2009, Kickstarter uses crowd funding to encourage creativity and entrepreneurialism while minimalizing risk to contributors. This endeavor has been largely successful, with over $380 million pledged to various projects as of October 2012. Between Wikipedia and Kickstarter, I think the power of the crowd is becoming more and more evident.

Is it any wonder that we at the Apiary Fund would trust you, the crowd, with our money?

Share this:

We at the Apiary Fund have really enjoyed getting to meet and get to know our traders at our previous summits, and lots of those who have had the chance to attend have let us know how beneficial they felt the experience to be. That’s why we’re excited to announce the upcoming September 2013 Traders’ Summit!

To make it easier for more of our traders to attend, we’ll be starting the summit on Monday, September 2nd (which is Labor Day), so you shouldn’t have to take too much time off work!

Share this:

A market is simply a channel for exchange. You’ve probably heard of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or the New York and London Stock Exchanges. These are three of the many major centers of exchange. They actually serve as physical centers of exchange to facilitate trading. Stocks, bonds, options, derivatives, and futures are all traded freely on the floors of these trading centers.

The currencies market, however, is different. There is no central exchange playing host to hordes of traders. There is no money exchanging hands amidst endless shouting. Believe it or not, the currencies market, also called the foreign exchange or forex market, is the largest liquid market in the world. To better comprehend just how big the forex market is, let’s take a look at the numbers. The New York Stock Exchange, the largest exchange in the world, sees about $15o billion move through it every day. The forex market moves about $4 trillion each day– making it around 26 times as large!

Because it effectively dwarfs other markets, the forex market has some benefits to offer its traders. For example, because of its size, combined with the lack of a centralized location, currencies are virtually free of external control. Even the largest banks can’t throw enough weight around to manipulate the market–the amounts required would be too extreme. This means an even playing field for us individual traders and small trading operations!

There’s a lot to be said about the forex market, so if you’d like to know more about trading, feel free to visit us at www.apiaryfund.com or give us a call at 1-801-701-1650.

Share this:

Lots of investors prefer different markets for lots of reasons. There’s not really a single answer for why any market is better than another, but today I thought I’d share three advantages of the forex market:

1. Volatility

The volatility of the forex market is sometimes cited as its biggest risk–and I won’t try to tell you that’s not true. Volatility comes with inherent risk. But just like any other investments, securities with the highest risk also come with the highest yield.

I remember my early days of trading when I’d place an order and go to sleep, only to wake in the morning and find that my hopes and dreams had been crushed overnight. Naturally, I blamed the market when I should have blamed myself. I now know that with proper risk management, as taught in Apiary’s curriculum, you can make the market volatility work in your favor!

2. Volume

So how does the increased volume of the forex market afford you an advantage? If you’ve had any experience trading other securities, you no doubt are familiar with placing an order and waiting hours, or even days, for that order to be filled. With fewer buyers and sellers in a certain market, you might not always have someone looking to fill an order–so you wait.

But forex is by far the largest market, so volume isn’t an issue. With so many buyers and sellers out there actively trading, you’ll find that you never have to wait for an order to be filled.

3. Leverage

I’ve written a bit on leverage before, but if you haven’t heard of it before, here’s a simple explanation: Think of leverage as money a broker lends to a trader to increase the trader’s buying power. In the United States, brokers can give traders fifty-to-one leverage. This means that for every dollar a trader puts into an investment, a broker will match it with forty-nine.

Leverage is a huge advantage to the forex market because it gives you more weight to throw around. Because Apiary works through a broker in New Zealand, our traders actually get 100:1 leverage. That means when a newly-funded trader starts working with a $2500 account, they’re really working with $250,000 worth!

Disclaimer

Investing in securities, currencies, and/or contracts associated therewith carries inherent risks. No person, institution, or entity, including the Apiary Investment Fund, can guarantee a return on investment for such transactions. Neither the Apiary Investment Fund nor its representatives will recommend the purchase, sale, or transaction advice for a specific security.